My colleague Brian Roewe reported yesterday on an interview given by Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois. There is much that is  how to put this as kindly as possible  jarring about the bishops comments. His comparison of the situation of the Church today in America to that of the early Christians in imperial Rome was histrionic to say the least: Whatever one thinks of Obama, he is not Nero or Diocletian. [Indeed. He is not. Nero and Diocletian were already living in a pagan culture of death. Obama is actively promoting the conversion of our nation to a pagan culture of death.] Paprockis comments on homosexuality exhibited a fifth grade understanding of the issue. [What did Paprocki really say? "Homosexuality and same sex relationships have been around for centuries. There is nothing new in that. What is new is argument that somehow that it is a good thing and that it somehow should be celebrated rather than it being seen as somehow sinful." Is is that MSW thinks that it should be celebrated?] But, what was most alarming were the bishops remarks about the sex abuse crisis. Those who criticized the Churchs handling of the issue are dismissed as anti-Catholic bigots. [What did Paprocki really say? He was was asked about a mendacious and nasty jab at the Catholic Church made on TV by David Letterman, namely, "I am telling you if there is anything kids cant get enough of its a 76-year old virgin. Come on, world youth day, or as the Vatican calls it, a salute to altar boys." Paprocki said in reaction to that: "You ask what else could it be other than anti-Catholic bigotry  well, it certainly is that. What else could it be? It certainly is ignorance. Profound ignorance for anyone to make comments like that. For one thing it shows the ignorance of someone who identifies the Catholic Church and, particularly the priesthood, with sexual abuse. Certainly, we have had our unfortunate share of scandals and sin and the church is dealing with that." He goes on to say that the Church has addressed the sexual abuse issue well and that there are other institutions that need yet to address it. In the interview he shifts the interviewer's proposal that "bigotry" causes such nasty remarks over to "ignorance" as the probable cause.] Many bishops have forthrightly confronted the issue of clergy sex abuse, to be sure. Others, not so much. And the Holy See has so far failed to establish a procedure for removing bishops who do not enforce the canonical norms that have governed the Churchs response since 2002. Bishop Robert Finn is still the Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Archbishop John Myers is still the Archbishop of Newark. [Remember that MSW defended LA's former auxiliary Gabino Zavala. "Nothing we learned yesterday, nor anything we are likely to learn in the days ahead, can detract an iota from Bishop Zavalas record as one of the outstanding bishops in the United States. "] By refusing to admit any wrong-doing, [?] but sweeping everything under the proverbial rug, [?!? Did he actually do those things?] by blaming the media for its coverage, Paprocki looks like no one so much as the tobacco executives who once insisted that smoking cigarettes had nothing to do with causing cancer. Paprocki is an embarrassment, not to me, but to his brother bishops and his cavalier comments and histrionic casting of aspersions [Look in the mirror.] on everybody else undermines the hard work of those bishops who really have tried to right the wrongs that were done and put the Church on a better path. He is like a character out of an opera  the gods are against me!  except, of course, this is not an opera, or even a stage, it is the Church. [Yes, the image of the diva does come to mind.]

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.